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Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts.  It means freedom from thinking about yourself at all.  ~William Temple

There's a lot to like about this year's big Oscar-winner, The King's Speech. Lots of better-informed people than I have said many things about such aspects as the outstanding performances by Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth, so I won't just repeat those kinds of things. To me, one spiritually-refreshing thing about the story really stands out, and that is the great combination of humility and daring.

Lionel Logue, the speech therapist who helps "Bertie" (George VI) overcome his speech difficulties, is from the first encounter respectful but firm with his royal client. He insists on first names only-- not only for himself, but also for everyone he helps, whether they are children or the man who is forced by circumstances to ascend the throne. At first glance, this radically egalitarian custom might appear anything but humble, but Logue's self-effacing manner make it clear-- he has a willingness to serve, to help others that dates from his time helping shell-shocked Australian soldiers recover after the First World War. And his respect and compassion for those he can help is universal. He has a quiet self-confidence, and no need to tear down anyone else in order to elevate himself.

Still, in that still very class-conscious era, it is daring to insist that a royal meet a lowly Australian in a grimy-looking basement office, and communicate on a first-name basis with the therapist.  But Logue holds his position without ever forcing it, and eventually Bertie comes around.

Bertie too has a certain humility-- indeed he has suffered humili-ation all his life, a lefthander forced to write with his right and developing a crippling stammer under his autocratic and unsympathetic father. But unlike his elder brother, heir apparent David (Edward VIII) Bertie too has a servant's heart, and a willingness to undertake the heavy burden of the kingship, even handicapped as he is by his speech difficulties. He too steps forth in daring, to comfort and inspire his people in the time of great testing.

But I think the scene that illustrates the combination of humility and daring most vividly is the one where Logue insists he and the king-elect be left alone in Westminster Abbey to rehearse the coronation speech. At one point Bertie turns around to find his speech therapist comfortably draped across the throne. Cheeky? A little. But Logue never makes it about himself. His daring to take such a liberty is all to get Bertie motivated. The act is, on the surface, disrespectful to tradition, but Logue's manner is never disrespectful. As the William Temple quote above has it, Humility is freedom from thinking about oneself at all. 

some more enjoyable links about the story:

Logue bio

behind the movie

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Elvin Lim is Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University and author of The Anti-intellectual Presidency, which draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents’ ability to communicate with the public. He also blogs at www.elvinlim.com. In the article below he looks at President Obama’s trip to the G-20 Summit. Read his previous OUPblogs here.

If there was one message President Obama wanted to send to allies in his trip to the G-20 Summit in Europe, it was to say that he is not George Bush, and the era of arrogant American unilateralism is over. In Strasbourg, France, the President said, “We exercise our leadership best when we are listening … when we show some element of humility.”

Does humility engender respect or does it evidence weakness? This week in Europe, President Obama was applauded and cheered, but this soft power didn’t seem to translate to much. The score is 0-1 in Round One of Liberalism versus Realism. I think the President knows this, and is merely waiting to cash in the store of goodwill he banked this week. As the major decisions of the presidency are made quietly behind the desk at the Oval Office, not in international summits, we should not mistake Obama’s courtesies as the prologue of things to come.

The President could not have missed the setbacks he encountered in this trip. Sure, he successfully mediated the disagreement between Chinese President Hu Jintao and French President Nicolas Sarkozy so that the G-20 would “take note” rather than fully endorse a list of rogue offshore tax havens. But the American president’s new found respect for the world did not engender newfound cooperation or an increased willingness to take America’s lead. (And we should not have expected otherwise, for courtesies are exchanged only up to the point when conflicting interests are at stake.) Europe was not malleable to the president’s call for a larger global stimulus package, and far from enthusiastic at his call to welcome Turkey into the European Union.  NATO allies only agreed to sending 5,000 more non-combat troops to aid the US war effort in Afghanistan. And of course, the President stood before a crowd of 20,000 people in Prague painting a Utopian portrait of a nuclear-free world just hours after the North Korea successfully tested a long-range missile launch.

President Obama’s European trip was a very well orchestrated and executed photo-op.  There is no doubt that Europe is feeling the love, but it is unclear if she is returning it in real ways that matter. The dance of diplomatic and royal protocols may have thrilled the public and the media, but on things that matter, the president squarely confronted the limits of symbolism and gesture.

After all, the president did let slip in the same speech in which he was extolling humility that “when we recognize we may not always have the best answer but we can always encourage the best answer.” In the end, (even ) the Liberal Way  is still the American Way. And I expect, as Theodore Roosevelt once counseled, the president’s soft voice will soon be amplified by a big stick.

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Oh, how sad. The wonderful "Farley" cartoonist has passed. He just announced his retirement a few days ago, then succumbed to a brain tumor. He was 64.

Many many mornings I enjoyed reading about Farley, Irene, Bruce the Raven, Velma Melmac, the bears, and more in the Chronicle while I drank my coffee. He and they will all be sadly missed.

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